First Look: Honor 5X

I expected a lot from the honor 5X. Following the honor 7 is quite a task and I truly hoped this device would be even better, or at least as good as the 7.

 

At first glance, it’s a large device with a full metallic body. It looks quite sleek and its housing is crafted from an aircraft-grade diamond-polished aluminium alloy.

 

To start, the design of honor 5X is inspired by the Guggenheim Museum in Spain. Let that sink in for a minute.

 

The device’s colour options include gold, dark grey and silver. Which are apparently similar to the reflections of the Guggenheim’s curved walls at sunset, night-time and dawn. Wow. I know, right.

 

The 10-point multi-touch Full-HD IPS display measures in at a comfortable 5.5 inches, with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and 400ppi. Larger than the 5.2-inch honor 7.

 

Its metallic body and larger screen give you the illusion that it should be a heavy device. However, it weighs about 158g — about the same as the 7 (157g).

 

Fingerprint sensor

 

No surprise here, but the 5X is equipped with an updated rim-free touch fingerprint sensor that can unlock the device in 0.5 seconds. It’s also reported that the updated sensor features tech that recognises partial and wet fingerprints as well.

 

The reader also supports intuitive gesture controls for making a call or launching an app during locked mode, taking photos, pulling down and hiding the notification bar as well as cancelling an alarm.

 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the smart key button found on the 7. However, it compensates quite well with three different slots, for a nano SIM, a micro SIM and a microSD card. This helps a lot since other devices and brands usually tend to make you choose between either a secondary SIM or a microSD.

 

Camera

 

The device’s cameras feature a 13MP image sensor on the rear and a 5MP front-facing camera, a step down from the 7’s 20MP (rear) and 8MP (front).

 

The 13MP back-facing camera features a F2.0 aperture, 28mm wide-angle lens, a blue glass infrared filter. The 5MP front-facing camera includes a F2.4 aperture, 22mm wide-angle lens and an 88-degree viewing angle, making the honor 5X the perfect selfie tool.

 

Luckily megapixels aren’t necessarily the best indicator of camera quality since several other factors come into play as well. This one features the SmartImage 3.0 image processor for advanced clarity, an anti-reflective coating to increase the amount of light entering the lens and several other characteristics such as beauty, time lapse, slow motion and macro modes.

 

Battery

 

The device features a 3,000mAh battery. And the reported battery life is 1.46 days with moderate use and over a day with heavy use. The device uses something called Integrated SmartPower 3.0 technology with an eight-point power saving plan to reduce power consumption by 30 per cent.

 

We would have to use this device for a longer period to see how it stacks up against the 7 though. Until then, check back here for honor 5X updates on pricing and regional availability.

 

A version of this review first appeared on #GNTECH, our new technology blog.